This was as comfortable a victory for Borussia as ours was against Motherwell at the weekend. Whilst the goals were both down to individual errors the difference in class was obvious throughout the game. The Germans gave us a lesson in the management of space. They always seemed to be able to find space with great movement off the ball. Conversely they reduced our space very effectively and also gave us a lesson in pressing. We had no time on the ball and little space to pass into. When we tried to press they just passed through us which then made us very hesitant to get in their faces.

The fact is that we are a team in need of a lot more development to compete at this level, particularly in midfield. Brown put in a good shift but the rest of the midfield struggled to compete. In the first half we tried to circumvent this with long balls to Dembele but, unlike in the Man City game, he rarely won a ball in the air. We stopped this tactic in the second half but often then seemed devoid of ways to move forward which resulted in all the sideway passes. This is what led to the second goal. Yes, Toure made a mistake, but he was struggling for options when this happened. Just before this I was thinking that Toure must have received more passes than any other Celtic player.

I thought that some of the fans tonight were ridiculously critical of the team (though I may be unduly affected by the guy behind me who’s favourite word seems to “pish”). When we were being torn apart at home by Molde a year ago then the criticism was justified but tonight we faced a quality team. Despite that, none of the players can be criticised for their attitude and commitment. Gordon saved us several times and Erik had one of his best games for us. The front three rarely got the service they needed and so it’s hard to be too critical of them. Roberts made a real difference when we came on and Griffiths made some good runs. The most disappointing fact of the night though is that we did not have one single shot on target.

I don’t think that Rodgers will have learnt anything that he didn’t know tonight. If anything the high expectations were a consequence of the way he has got the team to over perform on occasions. We have improved hugely in just a few months and I’m still confident that this will continue.

On to Hampden!

HOWARD GILBERT


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8 COMMENTS

    • Someone…please tell me…what’s all this back passing to do with us?
      Midfield we get the ball…our players look terrified of surging forward. Its back passes and inevitability ends nowhere for us.
      Maybe l remember great Tim’s like Bobby Murdoch… as if he would have froze midfield like our lot did.

  1. Agree totally, take good wae bad, we got well beaten by better team. We have known since day 1 we need 2 possibly 3 quality midfielders (2 attacking and 1 holder), we are working in progress and we are improving under Brendan. I said at start of group if we get 1 point we’ll be doing and if we end group better in Europe than when we started that’s progress. Sad to say we have some fans who go over the top at defeat and dish out vile abuse rather than measured criticism. Onwards and upwards Hail Hail.

  2. The difference between BMG & Celtic is, The Bundesliga a very much superior League to our own SPL, Yespecially BMG deserved to win at Paradise last night and now our Champions League Exploits are very sadly evaporating, At the end of the day {IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CELTIC} YNWA HAIL HAIL.

  3. Agree some fans need to cut manager and players some slack. We are playing against teams who have much bigger budgets than ourselves, who play against strong testing teams in their home leagues and we are giving them a run for their money. I understand the feeling of someone sitting near you who constantly complains and is critical of players and manager, I have such a “supporter” sitting next to me like that who seems to take pleasure in informing all around him how “shite” we are. If I was twenty years younger I would love to tell him that he is in no way a Celtic supporter because he never “supports” the team rather he is a huge Celtic critic who does nothing but criticize our team. Because you can afford to travel abroad to watch the team does not give you the right to be so unfairly critical.

  4. I didn’t think the players gave everything last night. If they did, it would mean BMG are better than city. I was expecting a win, but not too disheartened that we lost. More disappointed with the performance. I thought he players were very poor last night (with the exception of brown in the first half). We didn’t have the intensity that we had off the ball against city. If we’d had that I think we’d have gotten something last night. Although, it was indicvidual errors instead of bad defending that cost us.
    I get bitton looked for the ball, but kept making mistakes. I thought Forrest hid, rogic wasn’t looking for it, and we didn’t get it near Sinclair or dembele.
    Lustig looked like an old man last night. Can’t understand why he’s been offered a new contract. Thought toure was poor.
    Doesn’t make sense that Jozo plays in the league, and toure plays in the cl. If toure is our strongest defender, he should start more often.
    Armstrong should be ahead of bitton. We look better with him. More pace and movement.
    Rodgers also needs to find a way to have both griffiths and dembele in together.

  5. “Yes, Toure made a mistake, but he was struggling for options when this happened.”

    I’ve just rewatched the match, and you could not be more wrong with this comment. Toure had an early outball to lustig. He opted to turn back inside, then hesitated when sviachencko was open. He then opted for the difficult pass, with the wrong foot, to mcgregor who was already tighty marked. The pass was easily blocked, and suddenly everyone is out of position.

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